institution that had since his teens fiJ]ed his heart and mind with inveterate loathing. As is usually the case in the politics of clandestine dreams, there were factions within factions. Among those who lis- tened to P etrashevsky, Nikolai Speshnev was probably the most ruthless and the most ready for action. Doing what is largely pioneer detection, Frank estab- lishes beyond doubt that Dostoevski was a melnber of Speshnev's secret groupuscule (the French word best pictures this underground molecule in a revolutionary ideology), and that some sort of conspiratorial purpose was indeed involved. From late 1848 on- ward, Dostoevski was under some kind of secret pressure, and may have been committed to the lithographic multi- plication and dissemination of forbidden tracts. On the night before his arrest, he was almost certainly engaged in discussing the operation of an illicit handpress. Shortly after four the next morning, he stepped into a new and terrible world: ((When he returns to society again and begins to rediscov- er himself as a writer, the horizon of his creations will now be defined by this new world and its overwhelming revelations. And this will enable him to create works of incomparably more profound imaginative scope than had been possible in the 184 Os, when his only approach to such a world had been through its Romantic stereo- " types. Joseph Frank, who is Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton, has laid the foundations for an un- precedentedly detailed and rigorous un- derstanding of Dostoevski's genius, and of the intellectual and moral climate in which that genius evolved. This is very much the book of a professionals' pro- fessional, addressing himself to his peers in the West and in the Soviet Union as much as to the general reader. The style is resolutely undistinguished, and, as academic integrity will have it, there is scarcely a proposition that is not quali- fied and requalified in the light of mul- titudinous and sometimes contrary evi- dence. Already, Frank's labors have consumed twenty years. This leads to a perfectly understandable reluctance to leave out anything. Certain sections, on Dostoevski's relationship with Belinsky, on early minor works, on contacts the writer made briefly before his full in- volvement in the Petrashevsky orbit, are copious to a fault. Moreover, be- cause Frank has plowed over every inch of ground himself, he is less than gen- erous to those who have gone before him. This would hardly deserve men- tion if it did not mark, all too charac- 151 I . . À ! . I , . . Last year diabetes killed an estimated 300,000 people. Yet millions of people don't realize just how serious a disease it is They think curing diabetes is_ as simple as takIng a shot of insulin. Well, it isn't. Insulin can keep a diabetic alive. But it can t always prevent the complications caused by the disease H ;, M. ^" (o 01; I >>: $- ..,j ->-' ". d . ... ,.". " ':. .y', <( / r N! / ; . :., - jN ., ". > For instance, a gradual deterioration of blood vessels that eventually leads to blindness. Or heart disease Or kidney failure Still there is hope We're constantly lookIng for better ways of treating diabetes. And a real cure may not be far off But we need your help. Please give to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Box 9999, New York, N.Y 10001. Without you, diabetes may someday go from number three to number one. INSULIN IS NOT CURE. HELP US FIN ONE Juvenile didbctes is insulin-dependent diabetes, the n10st severe fonn of the disedse Juvenile Diabetes Foundation